DIY Upholstered Headboard!

Ta da!!!

As I mentioned in this post, I decided to use Young House Love & Bower Power's Pinterest Challenge as a kick in the butt to finish my headboard. I had been floating the idea around for months and it was the last step in finishing off my current bedroom. I posted about selecting the fabric here, and thanks to help from a bunch of blog/twitter/facebook friends, I decided on the larger dark grey stripe. My friend K made the point that the smaller stripe might read as solid grey from far away. As it turns out, the wider stripe (which still wasn't all that wide) reads a bit grey in the photos but still definitely looks striped in person.

So, here's how I did it:

First, I decided how big I wanted the headboard to be. I taped it out on the wall to get a feel for what it would look like at different sizes.

Then, I purchased the supplies I would need (on top of the staple gun and hammer that I already owned).

Plywood from Home Depot. A large sheet that the lumber guy very kindly cut to size for me (32"x56").

via Instagram

Two metres of 1" thick cotton batting/watting and two metres of my striped fabric.

Next to the white batting, the fabric looks dingy - It doesn't look like that at all in real life!

Nailhead trim. I couldn't decide whether to do Nickel or Antique Gold,  so I decided Future Vanessa could make that decision and picked up both.

The first step was to wrap the plywood in the batting. Before getting started, I reviewed a few tutorials I found on Pinterest (here, here, here, here, and here). I followed their procedure of rotating one staple per side and pulling the batting tight as I went, in order to prevent wrinkles. Some tutorials suggested gluing foam to the plywood before wrapping it in batting, but I didn't need my headboard to be that plush, so I decided to use only batting. The one problem I encountered at this step was that my dinky little staple gun wasn't strong enough. Luckily, SuperDad came to the rescue and lent me his heavy-duty staple gun and his stapling arm.

After this photo was taken, I trimmed the excess batting on the back of the board.

Once the batting was in place, I ironed the fabric to remove any wrinkles. Then, I laid the batting-wrapped plywood out on the fabric, making sure the stripe was straight. This was probably the most anxiety-provoking part for me, because if any pattern has to be absolutely straight, it's stripes. It was actually much easier than I expected! Following the same procedure as the batting, we stapled the fabric all around, alternating between the four sides. To do the corners, I just wrapped them like you would wrap a present. I also flipped it over every few staples to ensure that the stripes were still straight and there was no bunching. This is how it looked at the end of Phase 1:

Next, I needed to decide which nailhead trim to use.

I was feeling crazy indecisive. I love the look of the Antique Gold, but I suspected that the Nickel would actually look better in my space. After pestering several friends and family members for their opinion, I decided to prop the headboard up in my bedroom to see if that made the decision any easier. It was immediately apparent that the nickel was best.

The bunching at the top disappeared once the nailheads were added.

Instead of hammering in individual nailheads, which is crazy time-consuming and really hard to space properly, I used nailhead trim.

This stuff is GREAT. I was a little concerned that it might look budget, or that the difference between the trim and the real nailheads might be too obvious - but that wasn't the case at all. Basically, it's a long strip of nailheads and every 5 or so nailheads, the nailhead is a little smaller and has a hole in the middle. You hammer the loose nailheads into those spots to secure the trim into place. I decided to do a two inch border all the way around, and used my measuring tape (locked at 2") as I went, to ensure I was staying in a straight line. There were a few spots where my line wavered a little but I don't think it's super noticeable. I applied the trim in 3 pieces (one for each side), breaking it apart by bending the trim back and forth until it snapped cleanly. The application process was a little time-consuming (although nowhere near what I imagine it would be like to apply single nailheads) but not particularly difficult.

I am SO happy with the way it turned out!

It looks almost exactly how I pictured it in my head. The only real difference is that I was hoping the stripes would be vertical, but due to the fabric width, I had to use the stripes horizontally. I still love the way it looks though, so no big deal. I also didn't measure the nailheads at the top exactly right, so in one corner, two nailheads overlap. Again, I don't think it's super noticeable, so no big deal. I like that it's fairly neutral, so although it goes with my colourful and girly bedroom now, it's versatile enough to coordinate with future design changes.

Here's the budget breakdown:
Plywood: $20
Fabric: $23
Batting: $18
Nailheads: $20
Staple Gun & Hammer: Already owned.
TOTAL: $81

The final step in this project is to hang it on the wall, which will happen in the next few days. I'm going to use three heavy duty picture hooks, following Renee's tutorial here. Once it's hung, it will be a few inches lower on the wall than it appears in the photos (as it's just propped up on the mattress right now). So that's my headboard project, finally tackled thanks to the Pinterest Challenge. I am SO happy I finally got the push I needed! Let me know what you think!

P.S. Here are the links to the super creative projects done by Pinterest Challenge hosts: Sherry & John, Katie, Carmel, & Sarah.

P.P.S. This project was also shared over on homemade ginger for Megan's Ginger Jamboree Link Party.

Update: Headboard has now been hung on the wall, using a slightly different technique than initially planned. Read about it here.